Rudolf Steiner Archive & e.Lib Document

From the Contents of Esoteric Classes

On-line since: 15th January, 2011

115. EL, Oslo, 6-11-'12

It has
become clear to you from previous studies that if you do your
exercises in a serious and worthy way, certain effects will result. A
faithful, conscientious self-observation is necessary if you want to
notice results soon. But self-observation shouldn't be
practiced so that it becomes self-satisfaction; that's a great
danger for an esoteric. The exercises have an effect all right, but
if there's pride and other inclinations at the bottom of your
soul, the effect on you isn't good. All men tend to have
delusions of grandeur, but in ordinary life it's soon corrected
by the outer facts. There a man soon notices that he can't do
certain things, even though he imagined he could before. In occult
life this corrective perception doesn't appear as directly, and
one must use strict self-control to avoid the danger of pride.

A
second danger is in dishonesty while the intellect and memory get
worse, and this eventually degenerates into lack of control over
one's actions. One finds an antidote for this in the accessory
exercises, in the study of theosophy and in joy in nature. Thereby
willing, feeling and thinking are strengthened. A study of theosophy
is supposed to exercise one's intellect. For it doesn't
suffice to take it all on authority and faith; this would bring about
a complete loss of intellect and eventually make one immoral. One
would then be inclined to quiet one's conscience by quoting an
authority. One should check everything with one's thinking.
That's why everything is clothed in concepts and words that one
can understand, that appeal to one's intellect. One should
confirm theosophy with one's thinking.

If you
love nature's beauty and enjoy its small things you won't
just feel nature in majestic oceans or mountains — like
sensation-seeking modern materialists — but in things that can be
found anywhere. When higher worlds open up to a man, he
shouldn't close himself off from the outer world. He should
become familiar with nature and try to understand it, and not
criticize it without sympathy. Then every little animal can teach him
something. A man shouldn't say: it's only maya. One would
have to answer him: Yes, it's only maya but it's
Gods' maya and that's beautiful. Why can a man be glad
about a tree today? Because the Gods were once gladdened by what was
around them. It would be bad for the future if a man walked through
the world indifferently, for he would leave a joyless world behind
him. Every joy that one has had from small things will give rise to
something for others in the future, and not just for oneself.
What's true here is that all concealed things will become
manifest.

These
three things are supposed to have a healing effect on thinking,
feeling and willing. In ancient times, men were much more robust and
the exercises were more drastic than the one nervous people do today.
Ancient Hebrews spoke about four rabbis who went into the garden of
maturity; the first became a megalomaniac, the second did mad things,
and the third died. That's drastically expressed to point to
the corporeal difficulties that can arise in an esoteric from moral
and intellectual defects. This also arise in an ordinary person, but
not as directly, and he doesn't know about the connection
between lies and disease, for instance. An esoteric makes his body
much more receptive. He should see a warning in all difficulties and
ailments, which the Gods send him to show that something isn't
in order; then he should be even more attentive and careful. A man
should only say what's been checked and is true. It's not
enough for him to excuse himself with an “I said it in good
faith.” That's not enough. An esoteric should also never
say: “It's not my fault.” That's a denial of
karma and it doesn't help, for karma appears anyway. One should
be responsible for one's deeds and improve them.

It
would be easy and certainly sensational for me to say that my school
is inspired — as it really is — but that's not the
outer world's business. There, one must appeal to reason, so
that people see what's said. That's why one must write in
such a way that it makes sense to the human intellect. It's
worthless to refer to inspiration or to offer (15 year old
Krishnamurti's) book to the world and say that it's
inspired by a master of wisdom.

When
esoterics from other schools object that they enter other worlds too,
then one must realize that the main thing is how one enter them, and
not what one sees there. One can be an advanced seer and yet see
everything wrong.